Trinamool Cong and Cong put up united fight against ruling Marxists
After Nandigram, it's the Bishnupur West assembly constituency where opposition Trinamool Congress and Congress had put up a united fight against the ruling Marxists on Thursday.
By Tamal Sengupta, ET Bureau |
KOLKATA: After Nandigram, it���s the Bishnupur West assembly constituency where opposition Trinamool Congress and Congress had put up a united fight against the ruling Marxists on Thursday.
The byelection to the Bishnupur West Assembly constituency passed off peacefully and 82 per cent votes have been polled. With deployment of huge para-military personnel, not a single incident of poll-related violence was reported from anywhere in the assembly constituency. None of the contesting political parties have lodged any complaint with the Election Commission about booth capturing or false voting.
Left Front chairman and CPIM politburo member Biman Bose congratulated the electors for a peaceful and incident free voting on Thursday.
Result of the by-election will be announced on March 1. Thursday���s poll is crucial for both the camps---CPIM and Trinamoon Congress-Congress combine. The seat was under CPIM���s control and the by-election has been necessitated following the death of CPIM MLA, Rathin Sarkar.
If the CPIM can retain the seat, it will give a huge moral boost to the ruling Marxists before the Lok Sabha elections. The CPIM this time is facing a combined fight from its opposition as the Congress has withdrawn its candidate in favour of Trinamool Congress nominee, Madan Mitra. During the 2006 Assembly elections, the two opposition parties had fielded candidates against each other, making it easier for the CPIM to win the seat. But now, scope for any split in anti-CPIM vote is almost nil, which really worries CPIM to some extent.
Result of Thursday���s by-election can influence the ongoing talks between the Congress and Trinamool Congress in both ways. If the CPIM manages to retain the seat, it will act as a blow to the opposition parties. Though Mamata Banerjee has welcomed Congress��� decision to withdraw their nominee in her favour, she also made it clear that the case in Bishnupur West should not be considered as a model for electoral alliance between her party and the Congress.
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But for CPIM, retaining the seat is very much important. The opposition parties are trying to run the Nandigram model experimentally. In Nandigram, Trinamool Congress had contested the by-election with support from the Congress and managed to wrest the seat from the CPI, a constituent of the Left Front in West Bengal. In Bishnupur West, the two opposition parties are applying the same formula and if they can defeat the CPIM, top ranking leaders of the two opposition parties might feel enthused to join hands with each other to take on the CPIM in the coming Lok Sabha polls.
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